1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a non-invasive human metabolic condition measuring apparatus and method, and more particularly to a non-invasive apparatus and method using a combination of micro components and circuits to detect the content of a mitochondrial metabolite of a human mucosa tissue to determine metabolic conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three major nutrients of food including sugar, fat and protein can be hydrolyzed in a living body to form monosaccharide, fatty acid and amino acid which are entered into cells, and a series of chemical reactions will occur in mitochondrion to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which will be outputted together with energy, and thus the three major nutrients become an energy source of a living body.
The chemical reactions taken place in the mitochondrion are mainly completed by enzymes of a tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), and the enzymes can further decompose acetyl-CoA metabolically produced from sugar, fat and protein into reduced molecules such as carbon dioxide, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and flavin adenosine dinucleotide (FADH2). Respiratory enzyme complexes on an inner membrane of the mitochondrion oxidize the reduced molecules including NADH and FADH2 by oxygen molecules through electron transport chains into NADH+ and FAD, while producing water and ATP, and ATP is formed by adenine, α-D-ribose and α, β, γ—phosphates, and energy contained in ATP is stored in β and γ—phosphates bonds of the three phosphate molecules, such that when ATP is hydrolyzed to form Adenosine 5′-diphosphate (ADP) or Adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP), the energy will be released [Refer to Science Monthly, Issue 312, December 1995, “Mitochondrion Aging Theory and Discussions on Disease and Aging of Mitochondrion” by Cheng-yoong Pang and Yau-huei Wei].
NADH and FAD are products of nutrient metabolism, and NADH and FAD are excited by an ultraviolet light or a blue light with a short wavelength to produce a fluorescent light, and the structure of human tissues is changed during a carcinogenesis process. More significantly, the metabolism of cancer cells is faster than the metabolism of normal cells, so that the quantity of NADH is increased to give an abnormal ratio of NADH and FAD and produce a fluorescent spectrum different from those of the normal tissues.
In present applications of clinical medicines, the fluorescent spectra of NADH and FAD are used in the areas of testing an early-stage cancer, a nutrient metabolic condition of diabetes patients, and a metabolic condition of new-born babies, etc as mentioned in Science Development, Issue 451, July 2010, “Testing Principle of Fluorescence Technology” of Volume “Bio-medical Electronics”, but the intensity of the fluorescent light produced by NADH and FAD is very low, so that general testing procedure by means of the fluorescence technology us an invasive testing procedure that cuts tissue cells or draws blood from an examinee's body and performs the test outside the examinee's body. Such invasive testing method always causes a patent's fear or even infections to a patient with a weak immunity system. Some laboratories are using large non-invasive testing instruments for experiments and researches, but the large non-invasive testing equipments not only have the disadvantages of a large size and an inconvenient carry, but also incur a high cost, and thus they are not suitable for regular tests taken by patients at home.